UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES
The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc

1 Chronicles 12:32

MARCH - APRIL 2003

God’s Grace is Sufficient and His Blessings are Abundant

SUFFICIENT GRACE

The last month has been both extremely difficult and extremely rewarding.
I was very busy as usual with preparing for speaking engagements and working on seminary classes. On Monday, March 10th, I developed a sharp pain in my back and side. By Tuesday night I really felt terrible. Deborah thought I might have a kidney stone, so I went to the doctor on Wednesday. The doctor also thought my symptoms indicated a kidney stone, but the standard test was negative, so he told me to come back on Thursday for an x-ray.

The x-ray showed no kidney stone, and I continued to feel awful. On Thursday night I asked Deborah to tell me what the bumps were on my back. Then she understood why the kidney tests came up negative. “You have shingles,” she said. Apparently any adult who had Chicken Pox as a child is susceptible to shingles, especially if the immune system becomes run down.

So on Friday I went back to the doctor, and this time I was given medicine to get rid of the shingles and to reduce my considerable pain. Praise God, it worked! By Sunday I almost felt back to normal.
I tell you this, not because I seek your sympathy, but because I want to tell you what God did during that week.

On Wednesday and Thursday that week, in the midst of this terrible pain, I was scheduled to teach three hours each day to the senior class at Charlotte Christian School to help prepare them for challenges to their faith they will likely encounter at college. These classes had been scheduled for months and could not be rescheduled.

So I did what any determined apologist would do: I asked lots of people to pray for me, and I took some minor pain relievers before each class.
Amazingly, I did not have any difficulties while I was teaching the classes. But by the time I packed up my equipment and loaded my van, I felt awful again.

Even though having shingles has been a pain (literally and figuratively), I experienced something of what Paul must have felt as he ministered while struggling with a thorn in the flesh. For me, as for Paul, God’s grace was sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). The students seemed to get a lot out of the classes also.

I also had a wonderful time speaking to Clint Echols’ Junior High School youth group at Calvary for two Sundays, teaching them about the nature of truth and the exclusivity of the Christian faith. By the time we finished, they clearly understood that if Christianity is true, all other belief systems which contradict it must by definition be false.

Now if we could only help certain bishops in the Methodist church to embrace this truth. On a recent Larry King program, Melvin Talbert, a retired UMC bishop who represented the church, denied that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He said that although he believes Christianity is true, he denied that contradictory faiths are wrong. Even skeptic Larry King understood the problem with the bishop’s position. Let’s hope one day the bishop becomes as wise as Clint’s Junior High students.

MINISTRY PRAISES

In the last newsletter we listed several needs for the ministry, including a new laptop computer. Well, thanks to the prayers of the saints and the generosity of a friend, we have an almost-new laptop which will meet our needs very well. Praise God and thank you to the donor!

We also asked for prayer for increased support for the ministry. We were tremendously blessed by a sizeable gift from some good friends. Again, Praise God and thank you to these supporters!

We still are in need of a functioning desktop copier machine. Please contact us if you have one to donate to the ministry, and we can give you a receipt to use as a tax reduction.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support of our efforts.

SPEAKING SCHEDULE 2003

April 4-5
Baptist Student Union, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC: Intelligent Design vs. Evolution & Countering the Campus Clichés
www.ContendfortheFaith.org

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

UNDERSTANDING THE SHORTEST VERSE IN THE BIBLE

I have been thinking a lot about death lately.
Now don’t get the wrong impression. I have not been contemplating suicide, nor have I developed some morbid curiosity concerning the end of this life.

But I have been thinking about the brevity of life and the finitude of this mortal existence.

Current events, both international and interpersonal, have caused my recent meditations on such matters.

On the international scene, we of course have the war in Iraq that has captivated the attention of the nation and the world. With hundreds of thousands of US troops involved in this conflict, there are numerous parents, spouses, children, other relatives, and friends who are intensely interested because they have a loved one who is there.

These men and women are facing death every day in Iraq. The question is, Why? For what purpose are they risking their lives?

Certainly this military action has been and still is being debated. There are people of high principles (and people of low principles as well) who are on opposite sides of the issue. But since the president and the Congress have given the orders to go into Iraq, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are in the process of ousting the regime of Saddam Hussein and liberating the Iraqi people from his tyranny.

But there are lots of wicked regimes in this world, and multitudes of oppressed people. So why are our fellow Americans facing death in Iraq? President Bush and his advisors have determined that by doing so the United States will prevent terrorist attacks which would be facilitated by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. All of us remember the horror and devastation of 9/11, and as a nation we have adopted the rallying cry, “Never again!”

Because the people in our military love our country and our citizens so much, they have volunteered to defend and protect America, even if it costs their lives.

These men and women are not only noble but also biblical in their actions. After all, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

On the personal front, our beloved golden retriever, Manda, died on Saturday, March 29th. She was more than 15 years old, and was the kindest dog and best companion anyone could ever have. Deborah has had her since she was only a few weeks old, and she tells people, “I had Manda twice as long as I have had Dave!”

We both miss her terribly and have wept often since she left us. She certainly was like a member of the family, and we feel a distinct and gnawing ache when we recognize that she is no longer here to greet us when we come home.

There may have been more than one occasion in the life of Jesus on which He wept, but the one clearly described is in John’s account of the death and raising of Lazarus.

We are told that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha (John 11:5). Yet upon receiving word that Lazarus was sick, Jesus delayed going to Bethany for two days. By the time Jesus and His disciples arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days (John 11:17).
Before Jesus came into the town, both Martha and Mary came out to meet Him, and both said to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32).

When the Lord saw the weeping of Mary and her friends, “He groaned in His spirit and was troubled” (John 11:33). After they led Him to the tomb of Lazarus, we encounter the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).

This may be the briefest verse in all of Scripture, but I think it is one of the most profound. Consider this: Why did Jesus, who was and is God in the flesh, who would raise His friend Lazarus back to life in mere moments, stand weeping at his tomb?

Some people have speculated that He wept at the unbelief of the people that He could raise Lazarus back to life (a view with which I disagree). Others have said that Jesus was angered at the tyranny of Satan who had brought death and sorrow to man through sin. While this may have been part of it, I offer another explanation.

Jesus was not only God in the flesh but also man in the flesh. He was 100% of both, being the God-man. I think Jesus was not only demonstrating His true humanity by weeping over the loss of His friend, but He was displaying the emotion of the God who intensely cares about His people. By contrast, the gods of the Greeks were known for their apathy toward humans.

My conclusion is this: I believe it is perfectly appropriate for us to weep and to mourn the loss of family and friends, and even beloved animals. I think it is not inconsistent to trust in the sovereignty of God and at the same time shed tears of concern over people who are facing death on the other side of the world. To cry over the absence of a loved one who has gone on to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) whom we are certain to see again is simply to be human.

On Good Friday, when we remember the Lord’s death on the cross, do not hold back your tears.

Dave.

Jude 3